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The problem is that the Chinese government isn't doing it - they are simply giving others license to do it, with assurances of government protection and payment.

Sound familiar? It is - it's called privateering. It used to be done with ships on the sea; now it's done with computers on the internet. While China may not be at war with us, their use of privateers is proof that they do NOT mean us well.

So how do we combat it? Article I, Section 8, paragraph 11 of the U.S. Constitution authorizes Congress to "grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water." Imagine if the US Congress granted Google the authority to go after China - can you imagine how much havoc that would wreak if Google employees focused 20% of their time on fucking with China?

They're lazy, too - I mean, it's not like they really need to put in a big effort. The Obama Administrations failings are just laying there, like crabapples in fall. How could they NOT pick one up and whip it at someone?

if it is true, and flying is already safer than road travel, then why do we need all the security?

1) The elite prefer, at this time, to control the masses by fear. Americans are carefully social engineered to be cowards, and the elite like it that way. Otherwise, all the lives ruined by the elites might want to take a few with em on the way out. So, keep them scared.

2) Do you have any idea how much freaking money that "security theater" costs? Lots of campaign contributions later, it turns out we have a need.

I called this over a year ago in the "Air Force One NYC Flyby" incident:

"We are a bunch of fuckin' wussy people."

- 3 planeloads of people let 5 men armed with hand tools take over airplanes - because that's what they've been told to do. As soon as the 4th planeload of people find out how they've been lied to, they take action and save many more lives.

- Hundreds of students cower under desks waiting be rescued from 1 man with 2 handguns, and the only person to do ANYTHING is an octogenarian who gets killed for his efforts to protect the strong, healthy, 18-22 year old "adults" hiding in fear. The most played interview is of a young man who was simply waiting to die. He is called "heroic".

- A man starts shooting in an immigrant center, and police take 45 minutes to enter the building, while people hide like scared rabbits waiting to be rescued. The police state that their response time was irrelevant - the victims would have died anyway.

Oh yes, we have reached the point where helplessness is considered noble, where former soldiers are considered security risks because the government trained them to kill, and the people whose "job" it is to protect us simply shrug their shoulders and pick up the bodies.

A year and a half later, it's only gotten worse. One of the victims at VT is now making his name running "investigations" on how easy it is to get guns at gun shows - even though the guy who shot him bought from gun shops and passed the background checks. Soldiers passing through to Afghanistan are being told they need to check their bayonets - while they KEEP their rifles and sidearms. And once you enter the "secure zone", you must either submit to the scanner or the search or be arrested - you can't simply decide not to fly.

It's not even a question anymore about whether something really bad is going to happen - the question is what are people going to do WHEN it happens.

Would this book be suitable for a relatively precocious 10 year old? My son wants to learn how to make computer games, but he has the attention span of a gnat on Red Bull. But his math skills are excellent (about 7th grade level) and his reading is above average too, with a scary vocabulary. He'd be attracted to the comic format, but what level of programming knowledge does it assume? I'd be available to help him, except the last time I programmed anything was 20 years ago - in FORTRAN.

Recently your request to have your official email addressed removed from the public directory. I suggest you look up the term "Streisand Effect" on Wikipedia (or rather, have one of your more internet literate staffers do so).

Aren't computer types always accused of working in their mother's basements or the bowels of a data center? Sound like caves to me.

Oh, and read John Ringo's The Council Wars - it's a sort of retelling of the Silmarillion with sex and violence (and violent sex) replacing erudition and pretension. In the books, the rings are represented by cryptographic keys.